Happiness stats spur task force

Sam Cooper And Ian Austin, The Province09.26.2012

From left, Cedrick Bihis, Mark Baltisimo, Taylor Fru and Euna Lee talk about loneliness in Vancouver on Tuesday. The city has launched a task force to find ways to allow people to connect in a city with a reputation for being a lonely place.

Vancouver may seem like a paradise, but behind the polite smiles, there's evidence of loneliness, deep resentment and racial tension among some citizens.

Armed with these findings from two years of research by the Vancouver Foundation, Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer is proposing to create an Engaged City Mayor's Task Force. The 16-member force would devise plans to foster better relationships between citizens, and encourage broader participation in local government.

After surveying 3,841 people from more than 80 ethnic groups this year, the Vancouver Foundation found that one-third find it difficult to make friends in the city, and a quarter are lonely.

Many of the lonely people tend to be those living in high-density housing, and young adults who aren't yet embedded in careers, Reimer said.

"There are a lot of people that just don't feel welcome here," she said.

Over 60 per cent of residents aged 25 to 34 see Vancouver as "a resort for the wealthy," with "too much foreign ownership," according to the survey.

Frustration around housing is leading many to incorrectly place the blame on foreign owners from Asia, says Reimer. "There is a strong tension around race," she said. "We have to get ahead of that."

Reimer said the task force would be composed of 16 volunteers from diverse backgrounds - half renters and half owners would be one division - and a likely focus of planning would involve encouraging neighbourhoods to get more involved in tapping into existing infrastructure budgets. The idea is to create public spaces "more aligned with what the community wants."

If Vancouverites were feeling lonely and isolated in Tuesday's brilliant sunshine, they were keeping it to themselves. "I don't feel lonely at all - I love Vancouver," said Andrew Anderson, a cook. "I was just in Calgary, and I felt lonely there."

Anderson has bounced around the Lower Mainland, but always spends his free time in Vancouver.

Teenage pals Cedrick Bihis, Mark Baltisimo, Taylor Fru and Euna Lee said having friends and family around keeps away loneliness and isolation.

"We have a really close group of friends," said Bihis, 17. "That makes us feel less lonely."

Added Fru: "My family's really supportive of everything I do. From wanting to be an actor to wanting to go to law school, they've been with me every step of the way."

As the tight-knit group happily finished each other's sentences, Lee concluded that "family and friends definitely are a key part of it. I'd rather have two or three close friends, rather than a lot of people you go to school with who are just acquaintances."

Reimer said the task force would build on existing studies and would not carry substantial costs. Mean-while, findings indicating high levels of loneliness and resentment in Vancouver seem to run counter to trends for happiness across the nation. A new report based on Statistics Canada community health survey data, collected between 2003 and 2011, says more than 90 per cent of Canadians are happy with their circum-stances. The report said life satisfaction scores were lowest in B.C., Ontario and Nunavut.

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